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MLA Formatting Tips
MLA style offers guidelines on how papers should be formatted. This handout provides some
basic tips on how to format your title page, abstract, and document in MLA style.
Document Formatting
Your paper should be typed using a legible font that allows a clear distinction between
regular and italic type. Times New Roman is a good choice. Unless otherwise specified, your
font size should be 12 pt. and your document should have 1 inch margins on all sides. The
first line of each paragraph should be indented one half inch from the left margin (the tab
key is set up to do this in MS Word). You should only leave one space between sentences
after each period. You do not need to include a title page with your document, unless
specifically instructed to do so. The document, including block quotes and works cited
entries, should be double-spaced throughout.
The First Page
The first page of your paper should include a heading in the upper left corner of the page
with the following information:

Your name

Your instructor’s name

The course name

The date
Each of these elements should appear on a separate line and should be single-spaced. On
the next line after these elements, your title should appear in the center of the page,
followed by the body of your essay. There should be no additional spaces between the
heading and the title or between the title and the body of your essay. The title of your paper
should not be in italics, bold, or quotation marks. If the title of another work appears in
your title, you should use quotation marks (for shorter works) or italics (for longer works),
as appropriate, for example:
The Use of Imagery in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”
The Header
Each page of your document should include a header that appears in the “header” section of
the document, not in the first line of text. The header should consist of your last name and
the page number and should be flush left on the page, for example, Smith 17.
Use of Block Quotes
If you are quoting a section of text that exceeds four lines, you will need to do a “block
quote.” Set the quotation off from the rest of your text by beginning a new line and
indenting one inch from the left margin. The quotation should still be double-spaced, but
quotation marks should be omitted. With a block quote, the period ending the sentence
should precede the citation. For all other in-text citations, the ending punctuation should
follow the citation.
For more information on this topic and a sample first page, please see:
Russell, Tony, et al. “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing
Lab, 31 Aug. 2016, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01.